Monday, September 3, 2012

Ahh, September, when the weather starts to cool off and I actually want to be outside again. Its time to start hitting the food trucks again. While they all went through a summer slow-down, the slow-down of new trucks rolling out is hitting this month.

The Gastro Bomber is a Dallas based truck that is in the final build stages and should be rolling by the end of the month. I do not have a lot of information on this truck other than the owner tells me they will be serving upscale "pub grub", with a Texas twist. Sounds intriguing! You can follow The Gastro Bomber on Twitter. Their website will be up soon.

With school back in session, we also have two universities that have joined the food truck crazy with school owned trucks. TCU and their food service vendor, Sodexo have partnered with famed Fort Worth chef, Tim Love to bring The Big Purple Truck to campus. The truck will operate 10 am - 5 pm and 10 am - 3 pm on Fridays in front of the library and on the west side of the stadium on TCU game days. It does not look like a menu has been released but you can follow The Big Purple Truck on Facebook and Twitter to get more information.

Another university adding a food truck to its campus dining is University of Texas at Dallas. This truck serves sliders, Asian wraps, falafel and hummus cups, all very inexpensively priced. The truck operates from 10:30 am - 3:00 pm Monday through Friday and 9:00 - Midnight Monday - Thursday. The truck's information including locations can be found on the University website or on Facebook and Twitter.

A bit of sad news to report this month, for business reasons, Semplice Cibo Italiano has shut their service window. But Chef Audra tells me that she plans to be back on the road, in her own truck near the end of September. I will let you know when she's rolling and and how she is taking her menu in a new direction, while staying with the Italian concept.

We can also expect to see some of the trucks that I told you about over the last couple months, that have not yet rolled to come out in September. Gandolfo's New York Deli will be bringing out a second truck, with a revamped menu. Ruthie's Creperie, that I mentioned last month will roll out to join the Ruthie's Grilled Cheese and the Ruthie's Cheese steak trucks. Gypsy Scoops will be hitting the road, while Tutta's Pizza will be throwing their dough by mid-month.

September is shaping out to be a great month to try some new food trucks!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Until now, its been rare to see the DFW food truck operating outside of the immediate Metroplex cities. For the past few months they have slowly been making their way to the suburbs north of Dallas but on Saturday, they took a big jump to the west and rallied in Weatherford. What a Rally it was!

Even though it was hot, the set-up allowed for plenty of seating under the shade trees next to the Chamber of Commerce building.

Every truck had lines all night and by 7:00, two hours after opening, several truck owners were wondering if they could get the ingredients they needed for their menu items inside the Albertson's. Every truck knew a sell-out was in the works.

There were a few hiccups along the way, as with every event. I overheard someone say that the wait at Fred's was over an hour. The heat also made the slush machines have to work overtime at Slush Works, who periodically had to shut the windows and refreeze but people seemed to be taking both of these issues in stride.

If people did have to wait, they had plenty of options:

There was the game trailer, that allowed the kids to play video games one one side and the adults to watch the UT/Wyoming game on the other.

There were vendors peddling their wares or next to the seating area was living music and an area to dance.

And there were plenty of other food trucks to try.

Overall, a great event, that showed that food trucks are a hit everywhere, not just in the downtown areas of big cities. The people that I talked to were very appreciative to have the trucks come to Weatherford and are hoping there would be another Rally soon. If I had to bet, I would put money on the trucks heading west again before too long.

Disclaimer

This blog is provided for informational purposes only as a way to talk about my experiences at the food trucks of DFW. I am in no way associated with the food trucks, they don't pay me to write for or about them. I have purchased all the food that is reviewed during visits to the trucks. From time to time, I may be offered a sneak taste of menu items from a truck. These sneak taste are generally offered to me at no costs. I will disclose on the post that an item was part of a tasting event. From time to time, the trucks may ask me to write a post on their behalf. As long as the post does not conflict with the spirit of the blog, I will agree to do this, on the condition that the language of the post is mine.